The Unwilling Vestal Part 39

She looked well in it and wore the six braids and the headband more naturally than most brides, having been habituated to them for thirty years, since all Vestals always wore the bridal coiffure.

At the doorway of Almo's house, the bearer of the white-thorn torch halted and faced about inside the door, his two little brothers let go her hands, Almo himself caught her up clear of the pavement and swung her clear of the door-sill. As he held her in the air, nestling to him, she repeated the formula:

"Where you are Caius, I am Caia."

When he set her down inside the house she was at last a married woman.

She turned and watched the scramble for the white-thorn torch which its bearer first put out and then threw among the crowd after the slaves had also put out their torches.

So watching, Almo's arm about her, she became aware of a strange something in the look of the crowd and of the street.

"What makes it so light?" she asked Almo. "Why are the tops of their heads all bright that way?"

Lutorius, who was near them, explained:

"There is a big fire somewhere the other side of the Capitol. I noticed it at the top of the street. The Capitol stood out black, the outline of both temples plain as in the daylight, against the red smoke behind it."

"Send some of the slaves," said Brinnaria, "to find out where the fire is, and let us lie down to dinner. I'm as hungry as a wolf." And like a true Roman she began with a trifle of three hard-boiled eggs, merely to take the edge off her appet.i.te.

There were six tables set in Almo's dining-room and an ample crescent-shaped sofa to each. The sixty guests made the big room buzz with talk and echo with laughter.

Nemestronia called across to Brinnaria:

"Now you have what you've always wanted. You're a married woman at last."

"And I'll soon have what I've wanted almost as much," Brinnaria replied.

"What's that?" several voices called.

"Two desires," Brinnaria explained, "haunted me all the while I was a Vestal. One was the longing for a horseback ride. I used to revel in galloping bareback. I haven't been astraddle of a horse for thirty years. It won't be many days now before I shall enjoy a good canter on a good horse.

"Then, by to-morrow night, I trust, I shall have had a fine long swim with my husband and six hundred other couples in the big basin of one of the City Baths.

"Words could not tell you how I have longed to go swimming in the public baths with the rest of my kind, as a lady should."

The messengers returned with the news that the fire had started near the round end of the Flaminian Circus, close to the Temple of Bellona.

Before a strong wind it had spread both ways, had caught everything in the north slope of the Capitol between it and Trajan's Forum: the silver-smiths' shops were all ablaze; to the south it had crept between the slope of the Capitol and the theatre of Marcellus and was sweeping over the booths of the Vegetable Market.

"It is the biggest fire in our time," said Lutorius.

"Where will it stop?" queried Numisia.

Both sent their lictors to make further report.

Before the dinner was half over they returned, with messengers from the Atrium. The conflagration was roaring up the Vicus Jugarius and Gargilia was alarmed.

Lutorius and Numisia hastily excused themselves, called for their shoes and went off; he in his litter and she in her carriage.

As Brinnaria was about to cut the wedding cake her former lictor, Barbo, thrust himself into the dining-hall, frantic with concern, and narrated how the fire was beyond any hope of control and was already devouring the Basilica Argentaria and Basilica Julia.

"Lutorius has had the sacred fire carried out of the Temple in a copper pan by Gargilia and Manlia," he said, "and Terentia and Numisia, with little Campia, were helping Causidiena along the Holy Street. Causidiena had an earthenware casket in her arms. I saw them turn the corner to their right into Pearl-Dealers Lane. They are safe in the Palace by now."

"Safe in the Palace?" Brinnaria echoed.

"Yes," Barbo repeated. "Safe in the Palace. They say that the Temple and the Atrium must burn, nothing can save them."

"The Temple!" cried Brinnana. "Fire! And everybody ill except Gargilia and Numisia! And all they could think of would be saving that dear old blind saint and that contemptible cry-baby. Ten to one they have missed the Palladium and taken one of the dummies by mistake!

"O, Almo, I must go save the Palladium!"

Of course Almo protested.

"Don't hinder me," she begged. "Go I must, whether you object or not.

We'd never forgive ourselves if to-morrow we learned too late that the Vestals missed the true Palladium in the confusion, whereas I might have saved it if I had tried. They may have taken the real Palladium; I may be too late now to save it if they made a mistake, but I am bound to try."

He shut his lips, but she read his eyes.

"That is like my hero," she said. "Patriotism first, self last.

"Barbo," she called, "run before me and clear the way as if I were still a Vestal. It's illegal, but it will work."

She started for the house-door and then paused.

"Have you any fire buckets?" she asked Almo. "Then have two of the slaves each fill a bucket and keep close behind us."

Amid the prayers and blessings of the wedding-guests, they went out hand in hand, the two slaves with leather water-buckets behind them, Barbo ahead, bellowing:

"Room for Brinnaria Epulonia! Room for Brinnaria Epulonia!" At the street corner, before they started down the slope of the Carinae, they had before them a wide view over the city directly towards the Capitol.

Between them and the Capitol Hill they could see the buildings about the Great Forum all one sea of flames.

"The Basilica AEmilia is on fire," said Brinnaria, "and the Temple of Augustus is just catching. We shall be in time; our Temple won't catch before we get there.

"Run, let's run."

Run they did, the crowds making way at Barbo's loud adjurations. In their wedding finery, she with her veil wrapped round her head like a market-woman's shawl, they ran, hand in hand between the great Temple of Venus and Rome, black on their right hand against the reddened clouds, and the vast Colosseum on their left, all orange in the glare, the gilding on its awning poles glimmering.

Up the Sacred Street they pa.s.sed, running when they could, ploughing through the crowds when the crowd was too thick.

By the time they pa.s.sed through the Arch of t.i.tus they were running, panting and gasping, through a hail of warm ashes, hot cinders, glowing embers, blazing bits of wood, flaming brands.

At the corner of the Pearl-Dealers Exchange Almo halted, detaining her by her gripped left hand.

"It is no use," he said; "we are too late. You might pa.s.s the portal of the Atrium alive, but you'd never get back alive. And I doubt if you could reach the portal through this heat. You'd scorch to death."

"I shall reach the portal," Brinnaria declared, firmly. "But I'm not coming back through it. Listen to me and don't forget. I'm going to make a dash for the portal. I can reach it, our Temple has not caught yet, the bronze-tile roof will hold the fire off the beams some time. This end of the Temple of Augustus has not blazed yet; I can see the cornice.

"Once inside the Atrium I'll not try to come back this way, I'll find the Palladium or make sure it is not there; then I'll run upstairs to the south-east corner. Those rooms are on a level with the pavement of the New Street."

"But," Almo interrupted, "there isn't an opening towards the New Street.